1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to information processing and, in particular, concerns the inputting, and perhaps the controlling, of information to be processed. In general, it contemplates use of a tablet in combination with a writing or positioning implement--e.g. a stylus ("pen") or finger in which the combination may replace or supplement the usual keyboard.
2. General Background
Information processing, now advanced to a sophisticated level, is of increasing value in most aspects of life. It initially took the form of large fixed equipment--of general purpose computers--and this continues to be of major importance. Emerging equipment takes a variety of other forms as well. Advances in semiconductor circuitry--particularly in miniaturization of large-scale integrated circuitry--has permitted expedient use in portable apparatus. Such advances are of economic consequence, and have led to special as well as general purpose use.
Traditional apparatus has utilized keyboard input, and this will no doubt continue to be important. A number of factors, however, including user training, impediment to portability, fixed small number of keys, etc., all point to substitution or supplementation by other inputting means.
Considerable attention has been paid to inputting by means of a "graphics tablet", a form of which is the "touch screen". The tablet may be soft or hard, may involve interaction with a stylus, or may depend upon finger pressure. Monitoring by the user as well as other purposes may be served by display or hard copy. Display may take the form of a Liquid Crystal Display or Cathode Ray Tube--in either event underlying a transparent tablet or as a separated piece of apparatus.
A clear trend is away from large fixed equipment. The portable "scratch pad" or "notebook" computer relies on tablet input. This type of apparatus may serve as a self-contained computer or may be a means for addressing a main frame computer. Variations may be provided with printed forms with spaces to be filled in by a stylus which, in this instance, serves also as a traditional writing implement.
The invention is of value, too, where keyboards are inherently inadequate. A prime example here is for "graphical input" e.g. of diagrams or drawings. Kanji, the Japanese word language, is illustrative of another such example--that in which the number of symbols to be input vastly exceeds usual keyboard capability.
Whether used in fixed or portable equipment, flexibility inherent in the tablet expedites a number of functions. These include: "menu selection" to control graphically oriented operating systems, e.g. in "Microsoft Windows".RTM. and in a proposed form of the "smart phone" which combines the functions of a phone, phonebook, and data terminal onto one device controlled with a touch screen; signature verification or other means for authorization for user access; in "smart forms", where input information usually in the form of block printing, is recognized and compared with memory to assure entry validity. (See, for example, "Orange County Register, H1, Nov. 15, 1990.)
Problems of consequence in relevant equipment are set forth: